how do we live like Jesus to birth beauty out of our brokenness?

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heaven

Last week’s posts have been more out there than most of my stuff. Not a ton of practical stuff, more ideas. I think this will be the last one. We talked about what holds us back in the past but I thought it was such an appropriate time to talk about why we try to live the way we do.

This is about what I think the one of the biggest meanings of Easter is and more than that what the cross was about. Surprise, surprise I think it ties directly to compassion.

I suspect that if you’ve been involved with church for any period of time, you’ve heard a lot about why Jesus died.

He died for you and for me. He died so you could be saved from your sins. He died so you could avoid hell and live in heaven.

While perhaps not wrong this way of seeing Easter misses the true breadth of what happened.

I think it’s soooo much bigger than just you or just me.

I think the real purpose of it all is Jesus calling us into His holistic redemption. We are now able to be a part of the redemption of EVERYTHING.

The message of the cross is redemption for everything and everyone and we get to be a part of it.

That’s why we get to share God’s love and grace in everything we do. That’s why we get to dive into the messiness of people’s lives. That’s why we get to open our lives to others, darkness and all.

Because we are a part of the redemption of everything. We don’t have to do these things, we get to.

Jesus didn’t come to save you from hell. Jesus came so you can be a part of Him redeeming everything.

If you don’t think that’s compassion then I feel like you and I are talking about two very different things.

It’s a cool idea with some really important implications but what does it look like when we share heaven with people? What is life like if we are choosing the relentless pursuit of heaven in every moment? What are the actions of one with that as their goal?

Tough question, but I hope some of my idea here will resonate with you. There are few elements that need to be present for this to really work. You need relationship. You need grace. You need love.

I think back to the time I back into a friend’s car. My insides were wrenching as I go back inside to tell them. They had all the right in the world to be mad. But it was grace they choose instead and without thought, “No worries bud, it’s an old car. Have good night.”

It’s the time I was pulled over for a rolling stop and the officer said “just stop next time” and then let me go.

It’s the time I left our back door open at home for an entire weekend we were away and Sarah simply asked that I check the house for animals. No anger, just grace.

It’s in those moment people created heaven for me when all I deserved was hell. That’s what it looks like when someone chooses heaven. When someone chooses grace in a relationship not entitlement and rights.

It’s the time I sat in the hospital waiting for my dad to die and a friend stopped by with a bag of energy drinks.

It’s the time when Sarah and I were first married and I got home sick. I’d never lived away from home and I was struggling to adjust. She went out and bought me pizza and rented a TV series I loved because we didn’t have cable and she wanted to make our new home feel a little like home my old home.

It’s the time after my dad died that a good friend printed a ridiculous fake news story from the internet about fantasy baseball (one of my favourite pass times) and wrote “Saw this and thought of you. I’m praying for you.”

It’s in the moments when hell is closing in around you and someone steps in with love. That’s what it looks like when someone chooses heaven. When they come and as opposed to telling you it’s all ok, sit and enter into the moment with you. It’s love in action, not looking to get anything back.

I was thinking about what to write about this week leading up to Easter. Pondering how Easter and compassion connect. What does Jesus’ death have to do with compassion?

To me the two have to be linked. There must be really important connections.

Imagine there is no heaven

Easter is coming up this weekend and it got me thinking about heaven, salvation and what that all means to us right now.

So often our Christian walk is about the end. Getting to heaven and maybe even more than that, avoiding hell.

But what if it all wasn’t there.

Imagine there is no heaven, at least not like we’ve been taught.

Imagine there were no pearly gates and no streets of gold. Heaven is not a place we can go.

Imagine the only heave we can ever see is right here on earth.

It’s in the lives we live right now.

Would that change the way you live? Would that affect every aspect of your life?

Would you strive after it the way you long and desire for the eternal heaven? What would you do if the only way you could ever experience heave was to do so on earth?

If the only way was for you bring heaven into your life right now by sharing God’s love and grace. Would you not make that a focus?

We so often look to the end and wait for heaven to come. We almost consider this life a trial we have to pass to get to God and in doing so we miss so much of why Jesus came and what His life and His call on us is about.

For me, I think that a life of compassion is the relentless pursuit of heaven in every moment of our lives. It’s not the pursuit of some end goal but the attempt to see heave in everything we do. It’s the attempt to share as much love and grace with the people we come in contact with so that when we’re with them they get to see and experience who God is and what heaven will be like.

This is the life God made us for. This is life to the fullest. This is about dragging heaven into the present and sharing the redemption of Easter with every moment.

The redemption that allows for faults and brokenness. The redemption that uses our darkness to share light. The redemption that says you are loved and wonderful as you are right now.

Do we live compassionate lives for us to avoid hell or because we’ve learned that this is what we were made to do and are so driven to share our revelation of love with others?

Honestly, why do you do it?

Or maybe better put why don’t you? Is it because heaven is out there and all you need to do is wait for this mess to end?

Heaven is here to be shared today, in every moment. It’s there for us to see and be a part of sharing with every relationship we have.

Isn’t that the Easter story? Redemption came to us and is here today, heaven is here today.

You make a choice every day in every relationship. Do you want to bring heaven or do you choose to bring hell?